10: Dawning Alliance
by Chaoseternus
Thank you to: greyangle, rankukon alpha for reviewing, greyangle, hope this answers your questions
When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...
TwelveMorden, if he still lived, would have been somewhat annoyed that Anubis hadn't found his missing fleet of Shadow warships; it would have meant it would have had to wait longer for a truly powerful warship to command.
But Morden was dead; his soul enjoying the delights of Glorificus's old hell dimension, therefore he never learned that in the years after he was tossed out of the area, a group of Anubis's old allies had prospered.
And prepared.
Now with the return of Anubis, they had returned to the side of their master with their fruits of their years of isolation, years of industry, years of research, and years of planning.
Unbeknownst to the Tau'ri, the Drakh were going to war.
---
"New Contact!"
Enerina glanced up from the laptop and her game of solitaire with a frown, "any Id?"
"No sir, matches no known wait, I'm picking up fighter launches! Egerist frowned, incoming transmission"
"In the name of Anubis, prepare to die"
"Red Alert!" Enerina barked, tapping swiftly at her laptop, pulling the ships status displays back up, "prepare all fighters for launch! Target main batteries and open fire!"
Her Ha'tak began shuddering lightly as volley after volley flashed across space, swiftly impacting on the unresponsive and as yet unidentified Carrier as her ship charged once more to the offence. Then, the Ha'tak lurched and Enerina gazed with open mouthed shock as the shield strength readout shifted instantly from Green, 100 to yellow, 50.
That was just one hit, from the unidentified fighters.
Divert power to the shields, shift the main batteries to those fighters and get those damn Black Nights out of my bays and into the fight! she barked, a little knot of fear starting to develop as the ship lurched once more, the shields dropping into the red.
Advanced fighters, attacking in the name of Anubis. Had he found the fleet? Or worse, advanced allies?
The ship lurched, and strident alarms filled the room as the shields gave way after only three hits. Aghast and dismayed, Enerina cursed, her agile mind frantically searching for some way out of this nightmare.
Then her display shifted, twelve new green icons appearing one after another as the Tau'ri 5 th StarFighter Wing, the Black Knights' made their way swiftly out of the Del Shakka Mel's launch bays.
Then swiftly, one after another the Icons blinked out, and Enerina's eyes watered at the deaths of so many she knew and was proud to call friend. The tenth fighter blinked out, joined by the fifteenth hostile as a pilot killed a hostile fighter the only way he could with his crippled fighter.
A Fox-Four, deliberate collision.
But it still left 25 hostile fighters, plus the carrier which so far had shown no signs whatsoever of having weapons of its own to deal with and though the squadron had bought time enough for the Del's shields to be brought online, it was only at 33.
A tear left Enerina's eyes as the last two icons representing her fighters blinked out. Effectively, the 5 th SFW was gone, destroyed by an unknown attacker claiming allegiance to Anubis.
And unless the fleet they were here to meet arrived soon, they would be next.
Five new fighter icons arrived on her screen, with the blinking Red R that indicated a reserve pilot and fighter, the extras every squadron kept available spare so that the loss of a single fighter or pilot didn't cripple squadron. Three of the fighters were already showing blinking patches of yellow, light damage before they even engaged the unknown fighters.
Enerina swiftly said a prayer to any true deity that might be listening for their souls and for those of her crew as she tapped up a priority one distress signal, sending it to the communications relays, hoping they hadn't been too badly damaged to transmit.
---
The sudden, shocking blaring of the Red Alerts sirens made Captain Dodge, USN jerk forward in his seat, cursing as his coffee sloshed over the rim of his cup and into his lap.
"Dammit, report! " he barked.
"Sir, computer triggered an automatic red alert upon receipt of a distress signal from the Del Shakka Mel, the signal appears to have been cut off but it was tagged with final disaster, heavy attack"
Dodge's eyes widened with shock, then anger.
"What's our ETA?"
"One minute sir"
"Make all tubes ready in all respects including opening the outer doors, load gauss rifles and bounce the signal to all allied ships in the area" Dodge barked, his coffee forgotten, his mind only on an ally and friend who needed his help.
"45 seconds "
He glanced at his XO and she nodded, slapping the Intercom switch, her voice carrying across the Type II Dauntless class ship, the Stingray, "All hands, the Del Shakka Mel has signalled a mayday and that they are under attack, we are moving to assist. Give us your best and put your balls to the walls boys!"
